A Farewell To Arms

Author - Ernest Hemingway ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Scribner was reviewed on 5-Nov-2008.

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1) Paperback Book A Farewell To Arms by Scribner. Frankly, I dont know what to say. I waited for a few hours after I finished it before starting to write the review.

I liked the book as an old fashioned love story at certain times. The sweet cuddling in the Swiss cottage, where the simple joys of life gave it meaning, overcoming the banality of an isolated life, was beautiful (reminded me of the existential Godard masterpiece "Breathless" at times).Catherine seemed cute at times, although I could not stand her for a large part of the novel. She came across more as a chauvinistic man´s fantasy woman (the faithful slavish kind that the domineering men wanted) rather than a real woman. And sometimes her "oh Darling, do you really love me" gets on your nerves.

Henry as a lover and a man,comes across as hollow and again, extremely chauvinistic. Hemingway, I believe loved creating his males in this old-fashioned, dominating, virile, brave Western hero mould.Disgusting!
For this reason alone, I would probably not read another Hemingway ever. He is probably the greatest misogynist I have come across in all literature. For a man at the beginning of the 20th century, such shameless display of male chauvinism is unpardonable.

Also, I am less than impressed by Hemingway´s "revolutionary" style. While it worked better for a smaller fast paced action packed novel like "Old Man and the Sea", for a love story, and a more layered novel such as this, I would prefer the old style much better (Yah, I know tha academic blah blah about how he ushered in a New Age in literature etc. but personally, it does not appeal to me at some places).

Now, finally some nice things. This is a beautiful anti-war story.Few people have been able to strip war of its valor and patriotism, and see the human tragedies that it afflicts. Like Remarque, Hemingway´s portrayal of common men, caught in the whirlwinds of political struggles, about which they care the least about, is wonderful. And, in fact, coming from a man who values the old fashioned ideals of manliness in such a fashion, it is quite surprising. If there is anything I would remember this novel for, it is the reflections about war, that the different characters have expressed at several places in the novel.





¤

2) Paperback Book A Farewell To Arms by Scribner. I find this book a difficult one to review. While the story itself isn´t the most exciting, engaging, or fun to read, this is undoubtedly an excellent example of the literary skill of one of America´s best known and well respected authors. Hemingway´s sublime style of bare-bones, almost flat seeming, prose is able to evoke surprisingly powerful images and emotion. Certainly not flowery, with hardly an adjective to be found, it is nonetheless effective.

In A FAREWELL TO ARMS, Frederic Henry (the narrator) takes you through a difficult and life-changing time of his life. A rather cold seeming young man, the musings of Henry present a very interesting glimpse into Hemingway´s view of a young man´s psyche. As you experience Henry´s adventures in war and love, you come to see the brutality and unfairness experienced by so many during times like the ones described. While Henry himself seems quite distant and unemotional throughout most of the book, the reader really comes to empathize with the young man and while they may imagine themselves acting and thinking differently, sympathize with him.

The tragic experience of Henry and Cat´s love is at once intensely emotional and strangely shallow. Watching as true love develops in Henry is a great experience, while seeing his unthinking readiness to be untruthful (to himself and to Cat) is rather disturbing. The whole story is a very thought provoking and fascinating look into our emotions, the meaning of love and of life.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in Hemingway, not for those looking for a thrill ride.¤

3) Paperback Book A Farewell To Arms by Scribner. This is my second shot at Hemingway, having recently read The Sun Also Rises. Interestingly enough, I found the two reading experiences almost identical. As was the case with "Sun", I was initially underwhelmed, but around midway through the book, felt myself drawn into the story and by the end, was reluctant to put the book down.

Hemingway certainly has his own signature style. Clipped, terse, single sentence dialogue that at times borders on the absurd. Perhaps it is the act of becoming comfortable and familiar with the style that results in his works starting slow and building to a strong finish, because at its root, this is simply a magnificent story, built upon a singular historical event. It was Hemingway´s own experience as a stretcher bearer on the Austro-Italian front that provided the motivation and basis for the story.

I´ve seen some label this an anti-war novel, but I simply don´t see it. It is anti-war to the extent that it doesn´t glorify the act of war, but it is not political. The front line soldiers certainly are not pro-war, but honestly, except in the case of the odd megalomaniacs and psychopaths, given the choice most would opt for peace. At its root, this is a love story set amid extremely difficult and trying circumstances. Finally, as with much of Hemingway, don´t expect a happy ending.¤

4) Paperback Book A Farewell To Arms by Scribner. I admit I am but a fledgling Hemingway reader..
Definitely not yet an aficianado of the canon!
There are times when I still falter over his simplistic style, his reporter-like, almost point-form and unembellished narration. His pithy dialogue which seems at times so unusual that I am jarred into the realization that I am holding a book in my hands.
But this book, A Farewell To Arms was a fantastic read and has given me a new appreciation, I guess, for Hemingwayism in general.
Genre-wise, it is somewhat of a historical romance, perhaps.
Set squarely in WWI Italy and Switzerland. Lots of war, lots of rain, lots of gore, lots of pain.
I hesitate from saying too much about the novel, story-wise, because truly there are many ways that one could ruin it, by saying too much, especially as regards its increasingly-paced and unforgettably moving final sections. [The novel is broken down into five parts, books, or sections].
For me as a reader, one of the key things [feelings] I am left with is an overwhelming sense of the simultaneous dual-existence of meaninglessness and meaningfulness. I feel that this is a theme or thread running the length of the novel.
There is the meaninglessnes of war. The seemingly arbitrary way that beautiful things can be so quickly taken from us, be they dignity, or love, or life itself. The suddenness of bone-crunching shrapnel in the midst of friendly camaraderie... bombs putting an end to meaningful conversation. War is a perpetual mess, needing to be cleaned up.
But alongside this "meaninglessness" [what I am calling meaninglessness for lack of a better term], Hemingway paints a searing portrait of love and the meaningfulness of intimate relationship.
Lt. Henry´s [solidly requited] love for the Scottish nurse Catherine Barkley is like flashes of color thrown into the clattering frames of a black-and-white newsreel. It was meaningfulness, inserted into mayhem.
It was something beautiful, growing, thriving and enduring in a field of ugliness, disaster and loss.
The novel ended with the tears of two men.
Lt. Henry´s.
And mine.
I could say so much more about #74 on the list of the 100 Best Books of All Time, but I won´t.
I will simply ask a question and then answer it:
In A Farewell To Arms, does Hemingway show us that the meaningfulness of love and goodness and hopes and dreams are altogether something too good to be true?
No.
He shows us that all of these things are too good, and true!¤

5) Paperback Book A Farewell To Arms by Scribner. I will put a qualifier up front on this review - I listened to this book on tape. I think the reader´s expression of dialogue particularly just exacerbated my annoyance with this book. I originally tried to read it, but I found the run-on sentences nearly impossible to endure.

I really wanted to understand the value and meaning of this book as others have clearly found, but I could not... I found the characters shallow, Baby. I don´t know why Catherine and Frederic fell in love.

The dialogue was ridiculous, Darling. It was neither grand nor spendid. The speech patterns, using the same words over and over (p. 134, "We were all cooked... cooked...cooked........"), and also Catherine consistently flip-flopping (me paraphrasing and exaggerating... I hate the rain. It scares me. I love it.) made me want to bang my head against the wall.

As I said, I wanted to "get" this book and appreciate Hemingway, but I came away thinking he wasn´t a very good writer and this wasn´t even a very good book.¤

6) Paperback Book A Farewell To Arms by Scribner.

The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Hemingway´s frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the German attack on Caporetto -- of lines of fired men marching in the rain, hungry, weary, and demoralized -- is one of the greatest moments in literary history. A story of love and pain, of loyalty and desertion, A Farewell to Arms, written when he was 30 years old, represents a new romanticism for Hemingway.¤

7) Paperback Book A Farewell To Arms by Scribner. As a youth of 18, Ernest Hemingway was eager to fight in the Great War. Poor vision kept him out of the army, so he joined the ambulance corps instead and was sent to France. Then he transferred to Italy where he became the first American wounded in that country during World War I. Hemingway came out of the European battlefields with a medal for valor and a wealth of experience that he would, 10 years later, spin into literary gold with A Farewell to Arms. This is the story of Lieutenant Henry, an American, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. The two meet in Italy, and almost immediately Hemingway sets up the central tension of the novel: the tenuous nature of love in a time of war. During their first encounter, Catherine tells Henry about her fiancé of eight years who had been killed the year before in the Somme. Explaining why she hadn´t married him, she says she was afraid marriage would be bad for him, then admits:

I wanted to do something for him. You see, I didn´t care about the other thing and he could have had it all. He could have had anything he wanted if I would have known. I would have married him or anything. I know all about it now. But then he wanted to go to war and I didn´t know.

Hemingway was not known for either unbridled optimism or happy endings, and A Farewell to Arms, like his other novels (For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, and To Have and Have Not), offers neither. What it does provide is an unblinking portrayal of men and women behaving with grace under pressure, both physical and psychological, and somehow finding the courage to go on in the face of certain loss. --Alix Wilber¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 3-Dec-2008, 06848014699780684801469, 630-010-210-690-560-680-150-670-340-8

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